


The Secret World of CS: Where CS Stands For Coffee Shops

by bluebrise



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: Coffee Shop, Complicated Relationships, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, Humor, Implied Relationships, On-Again/Off-Again Relationship, Relationship Problems, Relationships on Pause, Sarcasm, Sarcasm Overload, Sass, Tumblr made me do it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-03
Updated: 2014-04-15
Packaged: 2018-01-11 01:16:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1166877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebrise/pseuds/bluebrise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post season one finale, it's three months into Mindy’s Haiti trip when Danny sees her at a coffee shop. What happens next?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Caffeine Conundrum

**Author's Note:**

> This was an idea by trustmeimadoctorwho on Tumblr and I decided to fill it! Beta by mindyanddannyfineanddandy, also on Tumblr! I thank you both for the fabulous ideas, advice, and direction. Also, I wouldn't have been able to get into writing it without the amazing fanmix here: http://heathicorn.tumblr.com/post/75394743485/sleeping-with-a-friend-a-post-airplane-makeout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mindy's back in New York. But she should still be in Haiti, right?

There’s a knock on Mindy’s door at 7AM sharp. She rolls over in bed, pulling down the Hello Kitty eye mask. She grumbles as she sits up and puts on her matching HK slippers. In a zombie-like trance, she makes her way to the door. She doesn’t unhook the chain when she cracks the door open.

“I’m sorry, lady. School’s starting and I can’t go do your morning, noon, and evening coffee runs anymore.”

“What? What are you-are you serious?”

“I have to go.” The child hands over an envelope of money. “I’m going to be late for the bus.”

“Fine,” Mindy gives her best glare through the foggy haze of just waking up. “Whatever.” She snakes her arm through the opening of the door and grabs the envelope. The kid leaves.

She shuts the door and counts her money. There’s about 20 dollars missing from the total. Mindy’s surprised the kid didn’t keep more than that.

Zombie-like mannerisms slowly melt away as Mindy searches her kitchen for instant coffee and coffee grounds. She finds a can with a sad excuse for stale grounds. Enough to scrounge up for one sad pot. That’s not going to work.

She opens the container on her counter with assorted tea bags. All decaffeinated, herbal mixes. Definitely not going to work.

“That’s it. I’m going out. I can’t stay in this apartment anymore. I need REAL coffee, properly caffeinated. And I need it NOW.”

 

* * *

 

Mindy storms into her walk in closet. Her eyes drift over the perfectly adorned racks filled with fashionable clothes.

“Oh God. I’m going to need a disguise.” She slumps into the chair next to her and sighs in frustration. “It’s okay, Mindy. You can do this. You just need to look not like you. What do you have that would make you look great but keep you under cover?”

She sticks out her leg to pry a half opened drawer fully open with her foot. Leggings, tights, socks. She opens the one next to it, filled with bedding.

“Great. All I have for incognito fashion is sheets for togas. Hm, that could work. Wait it’s-what day is it? Hm. No, no. Bad idea.”

She stands and pushes hangers aside, surveying the possibilities before her. She pushes the door of the closet closed to reach the hangers behind it. In the corner of her eye, a bulky garment bag that she’s been trying to ignore captures her attention. Her hand reaches out to the front zipper but instead grabs the hanger and stuffs the huge thing in the neglected end of the closet; where clothes go that never see the light of day once they go in. Mindy straightens the hangers back into organization and quickly pulls out a few things to wear. She’s feeling the need to go out even more desperately now.

In the end, she decides the best option is to wear whatever she wants. No one knows she’s in New York-except the people making food deliveries to her apartment. She’s been careful to pay in cash every time, though. Just to be safe, she also put up black out curtains on all her windows. As the sun disappears behind the other complexes on her street, she closes her curtains and then turns on her lights. It’s like she’s a spy or someone waiting to be added to witness protection services. Which is where she drew inspiration from for her first venture-out-into-the-city-after-coming-home-from-Haiti-two-months-early-on-her-own-without-anyone-knowing outfit. Obviously she’s wearing all black. Black platform gold trim chunky heels. Black knee-length skirt. Black button-up blouse, sleeveless. Big floppy black hat. And of course big sun glasses that eat up her cheekbones and an inch of her forehead.

Chloe Silverado, Mindy’s bad-ass alias, is ready to go out and get some coffee.

 

* * *

 

“Mindy?” Mindy reaches for her order at the counter and turns around to a familiar face. Danny Castellano.

“I don’t know who Mindy is. Sorry, bye.” She puts on a fake Russian accent mixed with, who knows what, maybe Greek?

“Hey-” Danny rearranges his two trays with six cups. Mindy takes the opportunity to make her way back out of her favorite coffee shop. Maybe she shouldn’t have gone to the one good place near the office. “Wait! Mindy-” She squeezes through the front door as more people file in. Danny is right on her tail. “MINDY.”

“Stop calling me Mindy!”

“Alright-um...uh.”

“It’s Chloe Silverado. That’s my name.” Mindy stops to turn and preach the information to Danny. “I’m clearly not the girl you’re looking for, okay?” She turns to continue walking in the opposite direction from the office.

“Alri-hey, Chloe, would you slow down a minute?”

“Chloe can’t talk right now. Please leave a message after the beep.”

“Mindy. Whatever your name is. Look, what are you doing here?” They’ve stopped at a crosswalk. The blinking red-orange walking man mocking her. _Oh, Mindy. Look at you. You can’t cross the street, can you? You know how bad jaywalking is. Mwahaha!_

“Come on, _damn it_.” _Blink. Blink. Blink._

“Why are you back home so early, Mindy?” Danny asks her softly. He’s finally catching on. 

“Nothing.” Little blinking light man turns green. "Ohthankgod." She shuffles forward ahead of the crowd. “Mindy is not here. Who is Mindy? Mindy sounds like someone who should be in Haiti.”

“Should be in Haiti?”

“I mean, someone that’s in Haiti. Ugh-Castellano! Stop confusing me. Your coffees are all going to be cold when you get to the office.” Mindy tries for a conversation detour.

“There’s a microwave. It’s fine.” Sigh. No dice. “So?”

“Chloe needs to go now.”

“Alright, look. Meet me after work somewhere? We’ll talk, alright? I won’t tell anyone I’ve seen you. Promise.”

_Something has to be done about Castellano. He’s seen too much too early. So, I’m being a little overdramatic. Whatever. I’ve been caffeine deprived. I can’t help it. I need my fix and I prefer it to be done in solitary, peace, and quiet._

“Alright, fine!”

“Okay, good.” He’s smiling now, ready to tease her, but she cuts him off.

“Come to my apartment. I’m not going out. I’ve learned my lesson.”

“Ok-”

“AH! That’s enough. Chloe is leaving now. Good day to you, sir.”

He shrugs his shoulders up in defeat, his arms bearing not so piping hot coffees. After a quick, knowing look and nod of understanding from each of them, they go their separate ways.

“I’ll see you later, Chloe!” Danny calls over his shoulder.

“Go away, Castellano!”


	2. Conversational Cupcakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny shows up at Mindy's apartment to talk.

_Knock, knock. Knock. Knock. Knock._

“Hey, it’s me.”

_Knock, knock. Knock. Knock._

“Open the door, Min.”

“Danny, that’s not the knock sequence I told you over the phone.”

“Oh, come on. I’ve brought food. Isn’t that enough?”

“What’s the password?”

“Cupcakes. From Magnolias. Let me in.”

Chain scrapes, a few nob clicks, a twist of a handle and Mindy finally greets her guest. Someone who does indeed have a box of cupcakes. In the other hand is some froyo with lots of toppings.

“Danny, is that for me?”

He smiles and hands her the treat. “I thought it would be a good peace offering. Looks like I was right.” He enters the apartment as Mindy retreats with the soft mountain peak of heaven.

“Yes you did. Thank you.” She motions for him to join her on the couch. Danny takes off his jacket and lays it on the arm rest. “Mmm, this is good. Want some?” Mindy offers her spoon to him.

“No thanks.” He sits back and gets comfortable. Watching her eat the frozen yogurt is like seeing a kid being rewarded for the first time in a long time. “So why are you back so early?”

Mindy looks at Danny quickly then averts her eyes, scooping a hurried spoonful of her dessert into her mouth. As she chews the crunching of Oreo bits fills the silence. Here we go...

“I’ve been in the city for almost three weeks now.”

“What?” Danny’s face falls. Concern, curiosity and confusion play across his features. “Did Casey do something? I’ll find him. I don’t care if he’s got connections with God-”

“Danny, it’s okay.” Mindy’s voice is calm, collected, cool. “Everything’s fine.” _Okay, deep breath._ “Casey proposed. I came home, first to Boston for a couple weeks then back here so I could get plans in motion.”

“What? Wow-Min, that’s... That’s great.” He leans towards her, giving her a squeeze on the shoulder. “Congratulations.” He gives her a smile that doesn’t quite light up his eyes. Which is fine because she can’t really bring herself to look at him. She’s smiling softly and Danny thinks she’s just being shy about everything.

“Thanks. Everything happened so fast.”

“Wow, yeah. A little bit.” He lets out a breath. “But um-” A bit at a loss for words, Danny clears his throat. “What’s- what’s with all the secrecy?”

“Casey and I-uh. We wanted to tell everyone together when he comes home.” She puts on a brave face to glance at Danny as she nods. The nodding is mostly to help her convince herself that her words are the truth. “He has a week off next month or something.”

Partial truths, things half revealed, they aren’t enough to get that feeling of something being stuck in your throat to go away. The other half wants out too. And it’ll find a way to do that on its own. Whether you like it or not.

“Huh. Alright.” He’s nodding his head with each word. “Cool.” Something doesn’t feel right. He can tell Mindy’s not telling him something. “Well, looks like these cupcakes were a good idea. Let’s split one to celebrate?”

“Yes, did you get the-”

“Yes. Obviously. You don’t stand in that line for that long and not get the best seller cupcake, especially if they still have some left to sell.”

“Good.” Mindy smiles at Danny, and they both smile at each other a moment longer than expected.

“Oh, one more thing for you.” Danny takes out a special gift bag he had hidden under his jacket. It’s a bag of coffee grounds from their regular office go-to place.

“Danny! Thank you! This is great. We should have some to go with the cupcakes.” She gets up and heads to the kitchen, Danny following her.

* * *

 

They’re eating their cupcakes, drinking coffee. Things have gotten quiet and Danny tells Mindy in a soft voice, “When you’re ready to talk about what’s really going on, I’ll be here alright?”

“Okay.”

“I’ll bring more froyo. Just for you.”

“Deal.”

“Yeah?” Danny looks at Mindy, waiting for her to answer him.

Mindy, however, levels with him and maintains the intense eye contact. She will not break. No. She’s got this.

Danny leans in toward her a bit to create more tension. Surprised by his tactics, Mindy goes into defense and pulls back an inch. Tilting her head in a questioning manner, she squints her eyes to show her disdain for his attempt at...well whatever it is he’s trying to play at. Oh, no. He’s not going to get away with this.

“Danny,” she says and then clears her throat for full effect. “I admit that you got my guard down with the delicious froyo but the sugar has made me more clearheaded. I now realize what you’re doing here, I do.” She leans forward and sets down her fork with a decisive _ping_. Danny is as stoic as ever. All he does in response is blink, challenging Mindy to keep going. She takes the bait. “You bring me sweets and coffee. Setting the scene up for me to confess everything.”

Danny raises an eyebrow.

“GOD. FINE DANNY.” She lets out a huff of irritation. “Fine!” She pushes herself up from her chair and starts pacing.

“Oh boy.” Danny whispers into his cup of coffee before taking a sip.

“Buttering me up so I can tell you what happened? GO HOME, DANNY.”

“Wait, what?”

“Go. Now.”

“Min-”

“No, you need to go-” Her voice cracks and wavers as tears fill her eyes.

“Mindy?"

She turns on her heel, heads to her closet and locks herself in.


	3. Closet Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mindy's in the closet. What can Danny do to get her to open the door and stop hiding?

Danny sits on the floor outside the closet and leans against the doorjamb.

“Look, I’m sorry. I thought you’d be okay to talk about it.”

Silence.

“I didn’t realize it was this serious. I’m-I’m sorry, Mindy.” He fidgets a little to get more comfortable. “Will you open the door? I’ll stay out here if you want. Just open up, alright?”

A quiet, muffled no can be heard through the wooden door.

“I’m not leaving.”

“Do whatever you want, Danny.”

 

An hour passes and Danny gets up. He goes around putting away the cupcakes, throwing away melted froyo, washes coffee cups and dishes. He straightens up the living room area. Turns off the lights except for the one by the front door. He grabs a fleece throw blanket and pillow and makes his way back to the doorway. Setting up camp next to the closet door, he settles in for sleep to take over.

* * *

 

A painful crick in his neck wakes Danny up. The stillness of the apartment in contrast to the heaviness behind the closed closet door is disheartening. He checks his watch. 5:30am. With a roll of his shoulders and a tip of his head from side to side, Danny repositions to sit on his knees facing the door. Light taps of a single knuckle make contact with the door.

“Mindy? You awake?” He reaches for the door knob. His hand hesitates before attempting to turn it. A twist and click later, it creaks open slowly.

The sight revealed to him takes his breath away. Still on his knees, he lets the door swing open and come to a rest on its own. A huge garment bag sits on the floor in front of him. Beyond that is Mindy, back towards him, surrounded by white taffeta and tulle. A ball gown wedding dress. On the racks next to her are two more garment bags. They hang there innocent and untouched.

Mindy rolls over to face Danny. “Morning,” she says. Her eyes are tired and sad. Voice strained from the aftermath of crying for a considerable amount of time. A bin by the window filled with wads of tissue is enough to confirm what Danny suspects.

“Hey,” he says softly as he crawls into the closet. He grabs a fluffy robe from the floor. Mindy props herself up, revealing in her other hand something colorful. “What have you got there?” He wraps the robe around her and she puts it on. Mindy looks down at her hand as it pokes through the sleeve of the robe. A handful of yellow yarn.

“Erica was giving me a pep talk.” Mindy adjusts the sleeve so Erica is more visible.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. She said that I look really pretty. This dress is her favorite.”

“Erica has a taste for extravagant things.”

“Yes. She does.” Mindy smiles weakly. “She said the other ones were boring so I put this one on. I guess we fell asleep arguing about which one I should try on next.”

Mindy pulls pack the sleeve robe to take off the puppet. Danny scoots closer to sit shoulder to shoulder with Mindy. The two are quiet as Mindy hands the puppet over to him. He slips it onto his hand and fixes Erica’s hair.

“Why did you come home?” Erica mouths as Danny asks.

“I don’t know. I felt like I needed to come back. So I did.”

“Why are you hiding?” He asks gently.

“I don’t know.”

“Where’s Gwen?” Erica tips her head slightly as Danny asks the question as lightly as he can.

“I-I haven’t talked to her since my second week in Haiti,” Mindy confesses.

That’s the tipping point. For both of them. Danny leans into Mindy as he wraps his arms around her in a hug. Exhausted from crying all night, Mindy welcomes the comforting gesture. Danny sighs and holds her tightly for a second and releases an arm to rub her back.

“Okay, how about some breakfast, huh?”

“Okay.”

“What do you want? I can make some pancakes, eggs, whatever you want.”

“Actually, Erica and I were talking about doughnuts. Last night. I had a craving and she said no because then I can’t wear this dress.”

“Well, Erica doesn’t always have the answers okay?”

“What? No that’s not-”

“Yeah, I said it. Now let’s get up.” Danny wrangles her up, surprised by the weight of her. “Wow, you are seriously heavy.”

“That’s rude. I’m very fragile right now and you insult me?” Danny takes a few steps back as Mindy responds to him.

“No! That’s not what I meant. It’s the dress! I meant the dress. God, like how many layers do you have going on in there anyways?”

“Oh, right.” She looks down at the big fluffy thing that grows outward from her waist and down. “I should change.” She looks up at Danny.

His eyes travel upwards from the skirt to the cinched waistline. A fitted bodice with sweetheart neckline. Modest yet tastefully revealing. There’s pleated details worked into the corset but no added bling or rhinestones. She looks classic and beautiful.

“Danny?”

“Yeah! Okay-You change and I’ll go get some doughnuts.” He spits out the words quickly and tries to recompose himself while backing of out the doorway. “Yeah, okay. Good plan.” He gives Mindy one of those Danny smiles with his hands on his hips. He starts to turn to leave-

“Danny? I’m going to need your help first.”

“Oh! Okay, sure.” He gives another Danny smile. “What-uh. What do I do?”

“Can you unlace me?”

“Wait. How’d you get into that on your own?”

“I don’t know, Danny. Just help me okay?”

“Alright, alright.”

“Okay, get back into the closet with me.” She turns her back to him so he can get to work on the lacing.

“Whatever you say,” Danny whispers under his breath. He crosses the threshold and rejoins Mindy.

 

* * *

 

“Danny, I just don’t understand, okay? I mean, why is this so complicated for me? I’m pretty, I have amazing tanned skin-”

“Mindy. Just-”

“-it’s sun-kissed and bronzy at the same time. That’s a major Victoria Secret model skin prerequisite, you know, and I’m both. Okay, that’s like an off the charts bonus for their franchise. I’m smart, I’m a great catch, I have a stable job, I live in New York on my own, and a really great fiancé. Gorgeous. And tall. Like wow. Why did I tell Casey that I needed time on my own to think-”

“I don’t know, can’t you just eat that box of doughnuts?”

“-and then desert him in the middle of the night in Haiti? Because I needed to think about things and talk to my parents? I left him to his own devices, Danny.” She takes another bit of a honey glazed confection. “What if he thinks,” she mumbles while chewing. “-that I’m done and that the baby goat we bought for the village is enough to fill the void?” Danny hands her a wine glass filled with milk and ice cubes. She traps the straw in her mouth and sips. “Thanks. He’s snuggling with a baby goat instead of me every night. Ohmygod. Danny, what have I done? I pulled the Indian parents card on him!”

“Hey, calm down. It’s alright. Here, take this powdered one. It’ll be okay.” She abandons the gooey, half eaten, moon-shaped baked good in her hand and leans forward to take a bite of the proffered snow-dusted sweet in front of her. Her brown eyes soften, the cakey sugar fix calming her nerves a bit. “There you go. Let’s just watch the movie, alright?”

“He said he understood... That he knew why I needed time. I told him that I needed to go home, that I do want to marry him. But I needed time on my own.” She’s still looking at Danny with those sad eyes. He’s staring at her a little too long and offers another bite of doughnut as a cover-up. She takes the bait and settles back into the cushions to watch their rental movie.

They are having a Nicholas Sparks movie marathon. Danny gave in and let Mindy pick the line-up without having to run the list by him first. Of course, Danny isn’t going to admit to liking some of them. They watched his favorite one earlier, The Notebook, as they ate breakfast.

Danny doesn’t know what to say now. What does he know about marriage anyways? Look where it got him: Divorced but kind of back together with his ex-wife, who is away on a work trip. They haven’t gotten in touch with each other in a few weeks and Christina’s on the same continent. She’s still in the same country, albeit in the middle of nowhere with dodgy cell service.

If Danny was going to offer any words of advice or comfort, any chance of that happening is gone now. It’s not the right time to say anything now. They’ve made it to the middle of The Last Song before Mindy has another breakdown. Of course, there’s no more doughnuts to console her with this time.

“Danny, you know what? It’s really sad about Miley and Liam, you know? Things between them didn’t work out well after she got her hair cut super short. Look at me! I got a super short cut and look where it got me.”

Danny looks at Mindy next to him. She’s still staring at the TV screen so he can continue his visual exploration of her.

“If Liam Hemsworth was my boo, we’d be best friends. It’d be great. So perfect. Seriously. It’s kind of this cinematic fantasy I’ve had for a long time. Here, I’ll tell you about it.”

“Wait-is that?”

“Danny, hush. If there was a movie of Liam and me, he’d fall in love with me and we’d be laughing and watching the sunset.”

“Mindy-that’s Hannah Montana.”

“-the credits would roll up after a fade to black, they’d show the names, and our happy song would play.”

Danny sighs. When she’s on a roll in that dream-like storytelling trance she gets into, all you can do is play along and see where things go. “And what song would that be?”

“What? I don’t know, Danny. Something really beautiful. Probably composed by Liam.”

“Can he play an instrument?”

“And then Jennifer Lawrence and I would hang out all the time. We’d go out to eat, trip on things. It would be so much fun and she’d think I was great.” She sighs in reverie, mostly for added dramatic effect.

“I think you’re pretty great,” Danny interrupts quietly. Mindy doesn’t hear him, though.

“What a life, man. Danny? Jennifer and I would be the best, best friends ever, right?”

“Yeah, of course.” He fidgets in his seat. He’s uncomfortable now. “Yeah.”

“Hey-can we change the movie to the next one now? I’d like to skip the sad ending part now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I ended up combining two planned chapters together! I guess it makes up for how long it's been since my last update? Hope you guys like where this is going! Things are starting to clear up, but Mindy still has more to say. Stay tuned :D


	4. Rebounds, Rules and Regulations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mindy propositions Danny...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I've been gone for such a long time but life took a different turn for me for a while. I'm back now and here's a short chapter to spice things up a bit ;) Hope the wait has been worth it!

“What?!” Danny huffs as he sets down two cups of coffee on Mindy’s kitchen island. It’s been a day and a half since he’s seen her.

 “Oh, come on. It’s the perfect solution!” Mindy makes her way over to retrieve the caffeinated goodness in a tall to-go cup.

“NO,” is Danny’s firm response.

“I’m serious. You should be my rebound, Danny!”

“I don’t even know how to process what your propositioning right now.” He pulls out a pastry box from his messenger bag.

“So don’t process. I’m not.”

“You see-THAT right there is a huge alert. Sirens are going off everywhere.” He’s starting to regret leaving Mindy to her own thoughts for such a long period of time. It’s clearly a dangerous thing to do.

“Aw, come on Danny. Stop acting like you’ve never wondered what it would be like...” She eyes the box with intrigue.

“Mindy-” Danny says as he reveals two special muffins from their favorite coffee shop.

“Interoffice dating. In secret! So risqué.” She takes a seductive bite of the baked good.

“Stop it.” His fingers on the coffee cup tremble, his brain’s ability to stay in control of his extremities clearly compromised by Mind’s actions. It’s a second or two before Danny remembers to get a grip. On the coffee cup and his emotions.

“Be a rebel with me, Danny.”

“Stop.” He sets down the cup, realizing that he cannot be responsible for it anymore.

“Okay fine, how about a fling? Wait. I’ve got it. How about the reality version of Inception? But the dating version? Like an alternate relationship within a non-relationship-”

“Oh my God.” So much for trying to enjoy breakfast. He pushes his muffin away from him.

“-I know, right? It’s genius.”

“Actually-”

“Let’s get started, shall we?”

“You’re not going to let me object, are you?”

“Not really, no.” Mouth full of crumbs, Mindy swallows and washes it down with a sip of her beverage.

“Fine.” Danny gives in. There’s sweat starting to poole between his neck and shirt collar.

“Yes! Let’s do this!” She holds up her cup to toast in celebration.

“Wait a minute! We need to discuss some rules and regulations here. Otherwise I’m not doing it.”

“Okay. Shoot.” Hand and arm still waiting for Danny to meet her halfway.

“Alright, first... Define what this Inception thing involves?” He pushes her hand and arm back down, refusing to allow her the satisfaction of a celebratory gesture.

“An alternate relationship within a non-relationship. It’s just so I can get out the wedding jitters I have on you. That way I can resume a blissful life with Casey when he’s back from Africa.” The words rush out with a decisiveness about them. Danny suspects that caffeine helped fuel her rationale.

“What? Aren’t you still technically in a relationship with Casey?” Danny isn’t so sure about her plans.

“That’s why it’s an Inception relationship, Danny. Keep up, please.”

“Um...” Danny isn’t sure what’s happening here. All he knows is that it can’t be good.

“Basically, we play out the alternate relationship so I can prove to myself that there’s nothing else out there I want. I know that I want Casey but I’m here now, so that means a part of me is still unsure. I want to get rid of that.”

“So you want to use me? For some time-out relationship to get rid of the fear you have somewhere in your head about marrying Casey?” His previous thought was right: definitely not a good idea.

“Yes!” Mindy’s face lights up with excitement.

“No.” He attempts to hold his ground.

“Danny, it’s a theoretical, time-out relationship! There’s no PDA or even DA for that matter. No intercourse, obviously, and I think you understand why. I’m engaged to be married, after all.”

“Mindy...”

“We just hang out, okay? And act like a couple, sort of. But not. It’s just-”

“An alternate relationship within a non-relationship. Okay. I get it now.” There’s definitely sweat stains under his arms now.

“So?” Mindy gives him a wide-eyed look.

Silence. Danny steals a moment, grabs his cup of coffee and takes a gulp. And another.

“Okay, fine.”

“Yay!” Mindy holds out her own cup, waiting for Danny to oblige. Tired of waiting for him, her cup bumps into his on the table with a thud.

“Oh boy.” Danny whispers to himself.

_ Oh boy, indeed. _


End file.
